


measure your heart against a feather

by RoseisaRoseisaRose



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth being bad at returning lost items, F/M, Flashbacks, I guess probably Azure Moon?, Sneakery, Subterfuge, during the timeskip sometime, it doesn't matter, one kiss but not like a very good one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26240518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseisaRoseisaRose/pseuds/RoseisaRoseisaRose
Summary: Ashe breaks into a study that's supposed to be empty in a castle that's supposed to be poorly guarded. Before he can escape, his past catches up to him in unexpected ways.Written for the Felannie discord drabble challenge; this week's prompt was "Lost Items."
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Petra Macneary
Comments: 17
Kudos: 36





	measure your heart against a feather

The halls of the Imperial Palace echoed with the footsteps of guards. Beyond that, they were silent.

Enbarr’s long history had seen its share of galas and balls, weddings and royal funerals, celebrations and ceremonies alike. But half a decade into the war was no time for diplomatic visits or celebrations, so the palace remained remarkably empty much of the time. Tonight, with the Emperor personally leading a mission to Western Faerghus and her most trusted retinue accompanying her, the halls were particularly silent. Two guards walked side by side down a narrow, dimly-lit corridor, not bothering with conversation at this late an hour. Their footsteps ricocheted, growing fainter and fainter until they disappeared around a corner.

Three heartbeats passed, and then a shadowy figure dropped from the awning above them, landing in a crouch before straightening up. He held his breath for three more heartbeats, then leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

Getting into the palace had been surprisingly easy. The hardest part had been finding passage to Enbarr, but a squire in the service of House Rowe had undergone little scrutiny at the border. Laying low had also been easy; there were plenty of inns willing to take an extra coin and not ask questions, especially if one was willing to stay in a shadier side of town. The trick had been getting into the palace unnoticed. The _real_ trick had been getting into Edelgard’s study unnoticed, and finding the correct papers, and leaving the remaining files behind as if they had never been touched.

But it was an easy enough trick for Ashe. He had lived most of his life as a thief.

He could scarcely believe his luck in getting out, however. Guards were moving without thinking; clearly they had been lulled into a false sense of security as there was little chance of assassination this evening. Ashe patted his right breast pocket quickly, reassured by the packet of papers beneath his jacket, as he turned and walked in the other direction of the guards. The main staircase was at the end of the corridor. From there, he just needed to slip over a side wall and make his way down a few alleys, and he would be home free –

The hand on his shoulder threw him so fast, and so violently, that Ashe had little time to wonder how a figure had appeared behind him in an otherwise straight passageway.

Ashe’s head knocked against the stone wall, but he threw up his hands to block the first punch, then the second. He recovered quickly, striking back and feeling the skilled block. Hand-to-hand combat had never been Ashe’s strong suit, and the close corridors were suddenly claustrophobic compared to a wide battlefield, where he thrived from the back lines.

Ashe reached into his pocket to grab the knife he carried with him, but a hand wrapped around his wrist and pinned him to the wall before he could even properly close his fingers around the handle. Another hand was at his throat in an instant, and the world went blurry as he blinked at the silhouette in front of him.

“What are you called, and why are you being here?” a female voice asked him, barely breathless from the battle. “I am giving you until I find three to have an answer. I do not wish to kill you.”

Ashe froze at the voice, and felt his knees give out by the final words. Coughing from the pressure on his throat, he shook his head violently until his hood fell to his shoulders and he could properly stare into Petra’s face for the first time in four years.

Her grip tightened on his wrist and loosened on his neck, and for a moment they didn’t say anything at all.

“I thought . . . you’d be . . .” Ashe trailed off, his voice raspy.

Petra’s eyes didn’t soften, but her voice did. “I returned from Brigid last year, but Edelgard would not be trusting me for fighting at the lines at the front. I am still – Brigid has not shown her worth, yet.”

The logical conclusion hung between them, unsaid – that capturing a Kingdom spy would certainly prove Petra’s worth. Ashe wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. It had been a long four years.

A glimpse of metal caught the dim torchlight as Petra shifted her grip on him, and Ashe drew his eyes downward. His free hand reached out, and he grabbed the small circular amulet hanging from Petra’s neck before she had a chance to bat him away.

“I’m glad it’s still protecting you,” he said quietly, and it didn’t matter if Petra’s eyes widened at his weak touch or weaker smile, he knew she remembered.

_(“The professor has been giving me something of most interest, Ashe,” Petra had said, leaning over the table in the Great Hall until her face was level with his. She must have known it would make him blush._

_“Oh, really?” Ashe said, trying and failing to hide the squeak from his voice._

_“An enchanted artifact for the warding of the evil spirits,” Petra said, and her badly-concealed smile transformed into a wicked grin as she dangled his amulet in front of him. “She must be concluding that I am the one of superstition_. _She should be watching you more closely, I think.”)_

Petra should have pulled his hand away. She should have done a lot of things, right then. Ashe ran his index finger along the center of the amulet, a deep blue gem that was almost certainly glass, thinking back on the shady merchant that had sold it to him.

Instead, Petra dropped her grip around his neck and ran her fingers past his collarbone, dipping below the edge of his jacket. She found the cord around his neck easily, and pulled. A scarlet feather hung from a braided leather cord, and she let it fall against the outside of his jacket as if it had burned her.

_(“Why would she be thinking this was belonging to you?” Petra asked, laughing, as she rolled the feather between her fingers. “You have no birds like this here in Fódlan.”_

_Ashe shrugged, trying and failing to keep the dopey smile off his face as Petra leaned back in the grass and twirled the feather above her head. “I mean, I don’t collect feathers, but I like foraging sometimes. It’s a skill I’m working on. And I know the names of a lot of birds around here, you know, Petra.”_

_“Yes,” Petra laughed again. “You always are knowing many things.” She held up the feather, lining it up against Ashe’s hair. “And it would not be looking bad, if you were wearing it.”)_

“Five years and you are still having it,” Petra whispered. “It brought you less luck, I am fearing.”

“I didn’t think I’d see you – here,” Ashe said, although what he meant was, I didn’t think I’d see you again.

Petra wrapped her hand around the amulet, brushing her fingers against Ashe’s. She pinned him in place more effectively than ever now; she had to know that.

_(“No, take it, it looks better on you anyway.”_

_“I am not leaving you to the spirits. Not now. You are needing this.”_

_“Please take it. I might not get a chance to – I want you to have it, really I do.”_

_“Only if you are taking this, then. Someday I would like to show you the birds instead. But for today –”)_

Footsteps clambered loudly above them, causing both Petra and Ashe to flinch. Petra took a step closer, pushing Ashe against the wall as if that could hide him. They were dangerously close to the stairwell.

The voice was barely raised as it floated down the stairwell. “Petra? Is everything alright? You haven’t been murdered, have you?”

Ashe barely suppressed a shudder, recognizing Hubert’s voice after years of telling himself he was exaggerating the deep, menacing cadence.

“Petra,” he whispered. “I want you to know that whatever you have to do, I understand. I didn’t think you’d be here; I didn’t mean to put you in a position where –”

Petra pressed a finger against his lips and he stopped whispering. She craned her neck towards the staircase. Ashe thought about running, for a brief moment, but Petra pushed his arm tighter against the wall, giving him a long, unreadable stare.

Three more heartbeats, and she pulled away.

“Do not have worry, Hubert!” she called up the stairs. “I was thinking I saw shadows, but there is nothing!”

“Well, let the guards finish patrol,” Hubert drawled. “Emperor Edelgard returns tonight; she’ll most likely want to speak to us about the success of her conquest.”

“I will join you in short time!” Petra said, a little too loudly, a little too brightly. Hubert’s own footsteps echoed, and faded, and disappeared, and Petra was left alone, staring at Ashe again, her eyes flicking from the feather to his eyes in frantic, uncertain jumps.

“There is a window down this way that leads to the gardens. I will not help you to it,” she said to Ashe, softly and urgently. “I can find you five minutes, not more.”

“Come with me,” Ashe said, his voice still raw, his knees still shaking.

Petra stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes, and for a moment Ashe thought she might say yes. Then her lower lip trembled and she leaned in and kissed him, instead.

It was not the tender and soft kiss that Ashe had dreamed of when he thought of kissing her, all throughout the academy and often throughout the war. Their lips were chapped and Ashe’s breath was ragged and Petra’s nails dug into his arm, leaving marks that Ashe knew would not fade away easily. It was over almost as fast as it had begun, and Petra stumbled back, clutching the amulet with one hand and pressing the other against her lips.

“Please, Petra,” Ashe repeated. He reached out to her and she quickly stepped away.

“You must be hurrying,” she said. She reached out, and he thought she was reaching for his hand, but instead she tucked the feather back into his jacket, quickly and almost too calmly. She rested her hand against his heart. Three heartbeats. “I am still, someday, wanting to show you –” she started, but footsteps echoed above them again, and she disappeared down the hall and up the staircase before Ashe could move.

Ashe heard the echoes of footsteps all the way out of the castle, and down every alley, until he was behind a locked door at a sordid inn in the worst part of Enbarr. He collapsed on the bed, the feather balanced between the stolen documents and his own beating heart, and imagined the footsteps belonged to her.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you ever do the thing with Lost Items where you would show someone every single possible item you had on the off-chance that maybe it belonged to them? I like to imagine Byleth doing that and the students eventually being like "okay yes that is mine, please stop asking me." Anyways this went in a different direction pretty fast but that was the _starting_ idea, at least.
> 
> Not actually a lot of Anubis in this beyond the title! I just think the imagery is cool. Sorry to all the girls who went through an intense Egyptian Mythology phase at age 10 and came here to have a good time.
> 
> [ eyy I'm on twitter ](https://twitter.com/Rose3Writes)


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